The present invention relates to a machine to track game effects for use with fantasy board games, especially fantasy role playing games (FRPG). In such play, game variables which can be loosely termed "magic", "special abilities", "items", and the like, drastically affect outcomes during play, such as combat and negotiations, which are part of the games. Furthermore, variables such as fatigue, injury, hunger, or other temporary handicaps can hamper the abilities of the game pieces (known in FRPG terms as "characters"). The device of the invention keeps a running record of effects that influence characters during game play.
In fantasy board games, game time is kept at a different pace than real world time. For instance, a ten-minute hourglass would keep ten accurate real world minutes, but not game minutes. Ten minutes of game time is called a "turn", which could take less than or more than ten minutes of real world time. For FRPG playing purposes, each turn is divided into ten rounds, each signifying one minute of game time. Each round is divided into twenty-four segments, which helps determine who acts first in each round. When all characters who are able to do so have acted once, a round is considered completed (one minute of game time has passed). This is true if there are two characters or twenty. Thus, game time passes at a different rate than real time.
It would be desirable to keep track of the duration and type of effect, and the character affected throughout the playing time. Game effects have non-standard durations in game time. It is quite common for two characters to be able to cast the same "magic spell", but the duration of the spell's effect depends on the relative magic power of each caster. It could last segments, it could last rounds, or the effect could last turns. Furthermore, it is not at all unusual for one character to be influenced by multiple effects at any given time. In addition, there may be multiple characters imposing various and multiple effects on themselves, their cronies, and their enemies at any given time.